44 BUTEONIN^J. 



throughout the region with which I am dealing, but is nowhere 

 very common. It feeds on rats, mice and lizards, and occasionally 

 small birds which, however, it always seizes on the ground. 



GENUS, Butastur. 



Bill, short edge of mandible scarcely festooned ; nostrils small, 

 oval, with a superior membrane ; wings reaching nearly to the 

 end of the tail ; third and fourth quills sub-equal and longest ; the 

 first four emarginate. 



x 



Butastur teesa, Franld. 



48. Poliornis teesa, Frank. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 92 ; 

 Butler, Guzerat ; Stray Feathers, Yol. Ill, p. 447 ; Deccan, 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. IX., p. 374 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology 

 of Sind, p. 86 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 

 1885, p. 57 ; Hume's Scrap Book, p. 286. 



THE WHITE-EYED BUZZARD. 

 Teesa, Hin. 



Length, 16 to 18'2 ; expanse, 36 to 39 ; wing, 11 to 12'5 ; tail, 

 6-5 to 7'5 ; tarsus, 2 to 2*5 ; bill at gape, T2 to 1*4. 



Bill yellowish- white, dusky at tip ; jrides stone-white, pale 

 brown or dun in the young bird ; legs and feet yellowish-white. 



Upper plumage rufescent-brown, feathers dark shafted ; fore- 

 head white ; a conspicuous white nuchal mark ; wing-coverts 

 mottled light brown and whitish, feathers dark shafted ; quills 

 pale brown with narrow dark bars, and dark tip ; winglet dark 

 brown ; tail pale rufous with indistinct bars, plainer towards the 

 tip ; beneath chin and throat fulvescent, with a central dark chin- 

 stripe, and a lateral one on each side, bounding the light chin ; 

 the rest of the lower parts hair-brown, banded on the abdomen, 

 less so on the breast, with white bars ; thigh-coverts faintly bar- 

 red with rufous, and the under tail-coverts unspotted fulvescent- 

 white. 



The young bird is brown above, paler and rufescent on the head, 

 with a white eyebrow, and a nuchal spot ; wing-coverts much 

 mottled with white, forming a light wing-spot ; quills pale brown, 

 banded darker and white beneath ; tail pale rufescent, with dark 

 bars on the inner webs, and on both near tip ; beneath, white or 

 fulvescent, some of the feathers streaked with brown, especially 

 on the breast and flanks. 



The Teesa is very common, and is a permanent resident, breed- 

 ing principally in April. The nest is usually placed high up in 

 a fork in an umbrageous tree, often a mango forming one of a 

 small clump, generally an outer one ; it is a loose structure of 

 sticks and twigs, unlined ; the eggs, from two to four (but most 

 often three) in number are pale bluish- white, unspotted ; they are 

 oval in shape and measure about 1*8 in length by 1*5 in breadth. 



